Fetoshi: Honoring the “Monster” Mladic Threatens Kosovo and Regional Security

Arben Fetoshi, director of the “Octopus” Institute, has reacted to the honoring of Ratko Mladic in Republika Srpska and the announcement of plans to organize a state funeral in Serbia.

According to him, the glorification of the former Serbian commander represents the continuation of past policies and undermines the stability of the Western Balkans. Fetoshi links this approach to the “Serbian World” narrative and ongoing claims against Kosovo.

A Serbian “general,” sentenced to life imprisonment by the Hague Tribunal for “genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes,” continues to be seen as a threat to the security of the Western Balkans even after his death.

While Ratko Mladic is being honored in Republika Srpska, Bosnia continues to mourn the children, women and men killed in his massacres. At the same time, the announcement of a state funeral ceremony in Serbia is seen as a strategic signal directed at Kosovo and the Euro-Atlantic community.

Fetoshi assesses that, beyond the muted reactions of civil and humanitarian actors, the institutional honoring of Mladic demonstrates that Milosevic’s policies remain present, now disguised behind the concept of the “Serbian World.”

Whether this violates the law, as the Humanitarian Law Fund in Serbia points out, or constitutes a “scandal and disgrace,” according to the Academy for Democratic Development in Novi Sad, as well as the consequences it could have for the country’s path toward the EU, do not appear to matter as long as the honoring is defended through a strategy of denial and used to “legitimize” the ideology of “Greater Serbia.”

President Vucic may try to “soften” the statement by his minister, Nenad Vujiq, but according to Fetoshi, this does not conceal the real danger, which is presented wrapped in a narrative of “victimhood.”

A “dignified” burial for Mladic does not represent a distancing from genocide and ethnic cleansing. On the contrary, it is seen as a play on words that threatens the region through the construction of a narrative portraying Kosovo as “repressive.”